


The Worst Moments

by viridianova



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2014-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-16 09:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 4,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianova/pseuds/viridianova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a space for me to keep all of my BPS fic together. Mostly rarepair focused, although obviously a more popular pairing is going to sneak through <i>sometimes</i>. Mostly canon compliant-ish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Familiar Idiocy (AoKasa)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aokasa, challenge #24 rarepairs

It’s a little annoying, the way Aomine seems to always be there at the worst moments. His entrance ceremony to university almost certainly had to count, given the fact that three different girls had just asked for his number and he hadn’t been able to say a thing to a single one of them. He was just about to leave—maybe finding a court and blow off some steam—when who was there, under that fucking stupid tree that was probably a good place to talk to a girl if he could ever actually _get to that point_ , but Aomine Daiki. And he had that stupid shit-eating grin on his face that could only mean one thing.

"Yo, senpai. Need a hand?"

Okay, so maybe that hadn’t been exactly what Kasamatsu had been expecting. He’d been expecting something more like a joke about how awful that pick-up attempt had been (because he’d heard the stories from Kise, at least a few, about how Aomine loved his gravure and wouldn’t that at least carry over a little? Not to mention that chick—Touou’s manager, Momoi Satsuki, or whatever), but he was still just standing there. And besides that knowing smirk, he didn’t seem that interested in trying to give him shit.

Maybe he had grown up, just a little. It had been a while, after all, since he’d really had to interact with the guy—almost a year now, since the Interhigh. But this was Aomine they were talking about—a guy who was so full of himself that he thought that Kasamatsu wouldn’t notice the fact that he was _here_ , at a university, at a time when anyone in high school would have class, too.

"You can ask that when you aren’t supposed to be in school, brat."

The most infuriating thing about Aomine Daiki, though, was that stuff like that just made him grin harder. Aomine finally steps forward, to set a heavy arm around Kasamatsu’s shoulder (as some sort of reminder that Aomine would always be bigger that him, that he was hardly what you could call a _child_ or a _brat_ ), and gives him a look that says almost as much as the actual words he speaks.

"Too bad."


	2. disbalance in measurement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> himukaga, challenge #12 (battle of the otps)

"Taiga," Tatsuya said, barely able to suppress his laughter from the other side of the changing room door. “You’re overthinking this."

He could hear the loud clunk of a shoe hitting the other side (or at least, he was pretty sure that was a shoe, because he did know how hard those basketball shoes tended to be), and several loud “fuck"s.

"Tatsuya, this is just embarrassing, I don’t even get why I have to do it—"

"Because when we go back to Japan we wouldn’t be able to get away with it."

"We can barely get away with it here!"

"Yeah, but we’re in LA. No one really cares if a guy really wants to try on a bra—"

"They’re gonna care when I bust every single one of these, my chest is way too wide—"

There were more swears from the other side, but at least there weren’t any more shoes (probably because he was too absorbed in trying to close those clasps.)

"Taiga, do you need help?"

And finally a pause, a reprieve from the noise, at least, which was probably more of a relief to the other patrons of the store (which at least specialized in women with big chests, which at least meant there was some chance (but not that much, for a bunch of guys whose cups were only AAs but their chests measured into the 40s and possibly beyond) that he’d be able to find something decent.

"… Yeah. But you can’t fucking laugh."

"Wouldn’t dream of it."

And maybe that was partially a lie, since he was already smiling through the door. But Taiga had to know that he’d be doing this too, soon enough.

Then again, he hadn’t actually _told_ him that yet.


	3. significant digit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aoimakasa, for challenge #25 (basketball)

It became something like a routine. Every practice, precisely forty two minutes in, Aomine Daiki would come striding through the door expecting the entirety of Tokyo University’s basketball club to fall at his feet and let him play.

The first time, the captain hadn’t been there (because practice had started early and the captain had already left everyone to their drills), so the poor first and second years actually let him, rather amazed as to why a high school prodigy was trying to force himself onto a university team already. There still had to be someone on the high school level who could challenge him, right? Or maybe it’s just that they hadn’t realized that Aomine’s reasons for coming to their practices had nothing to do with any challenge level they might present (which pretty near to zero, really) and everything to do with two of the first year members of the club.

The one people were able to figure out pretty fast (Imayoshi, you went to Touou—ah, so he’s visiting his senpai, how sweet), but no one could really figure out why Aomine always gave Kasamatsu a smirk when he tossed a ball into the net from a particularly bizarre angle. They were more distracted by the way Aomine handled the ball though, and after a few weeks nearly everyone in the club was utterly entranced by this seventeen year old who really did nothing but disrupt their practice. The only people who weren’t impressed were the people who he was theoretically there for—Imayoshi just smiled enigmatically and ignored him, and Kasamatsu looked like he was getting a little bit closer to having a stroke every time.


	4. unexpected disrespect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kasakise, for challenge 26 (families)

For some reason, Kasamatsu had missed just what meeting Kise’s family would mean. Maybe he assumed that Kise had been an only child, that he’d just be meeting his parents. Or maybe Kise had brothers—even younger sisters wouldn’t be that bad.

But not only had Kise neglected to mention that he had sisters, but that he had two older sisters, who were both just as pretty (or maybe prettier, since it was a little weird to think of a guy as pretty, especially someone who he spent most of his time watching sweat on the court) as he was. And their personality was the same, too, all overwrought friendliness except he couldn’t exactly hit two girls in the head.

That wasn’t what he wanted to do though, really. He just wanted to clam up and bolt.

But like a lot of girls (and Kise, so maybe it was at least some genetic trait of overly beautiful blonde people), his two sisters seemed to notice exactly how nervous he was, so they pounced instead of letting him be.

"Ryouta talks a lot about you, you know." They were sitting down to dinner, just the two sisters and Kise and him (because Kise’s parents were out on some sort of business meeting—something _else_ that Kise had oh so conveniently forgotten to mention). “He says you do a very good job."

The other one (the older one? he still hadn’t caught their names, he’d been too focused on the fact that he was meeting _girls_ when the two of them had opened the door) laughed and leaned forward as well.

"Except, we were going to ask you to maybe go a little easy on the corporal punishment. It could be bad for his career, you know?"

And even though Kasamatsu had a million reasons and defenses for the multitude of times he had punched Kise (or kicked him, or nailed him with a basketball), he still found himself nodding fervently and agreeing to cut down on it all the same.


	5. roll bake pan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AoSaku for Challenge 27 (Food). I was about to call this "cooking with daiki". If that helps.

There were very few things that Aomine Daiki put any effort toward. One of those things was buying the limited edition of every single Mai-chan photobook in existence, and the other, as far as Sakurai Ryou knew, was food. More specifically, the food that _he cooked_. Sakurai didn't really mind making an extra lunch every day, even though he always had to hide the second one, since Aomine only really seemed to enjoy food when he was stealing it from someone else.

(Imayoshi had told him this, the first time Aomine took his food and Sakurai had apologized to him for not having thought to make extras. It was better for Aomine to think that he was taking it for himself, since that was how he viewed himself. And it was so _paramount_ that Aomine didn't leave the basketball team, so could you please inconvience yourself just this once? Sakurai grimaced a little but he agreed, because Aomine _was_ their ace. Even if he felt they didn't have much trouble winning without him, most of the time.)

But why this effort toward food had to extend toward Aomine _supervising_ his bento making every Sunday, Sakurai couldn't quite figure out. He couldn't even remember how it had started, anymore. But what he did know was that it was supremely distracting to have someone leaning over his shoulder. Holding his shoulder. _Muttering_.

"Oi, Ryou, why the hell're you even making this crap?" Aomine grabbed the second pair of kitchen chopsticks as he asked, pressing a little more firmly against Sakurai's back as he reached over to attempt to take some of the still cooking egg out of the pan. "It's— good."

He almost sounded surprised that it was. Sakurai couldn't really be surprised, since Aomine tended to be very inflexible in what he liked to eat. If he hadn't already been in the middle of cooking, Aomine probably would've dictated the whole menu. In fact, he had done that the second time, and since then, Sakurai had learned that as long as he started cooking before 10am he'd be able to keep some sort of order over his own kitchen.

"You're going to make me burn it." 

It was actually already nearly smoking, but Aomine was oblivious to anything dangerous in the way Sakurai was talking (although not being able to see the pout forming on his lips was probably a big part of that), and just grabbed more, chewing noisily into Sakurai's ear.

"So what? It's Sunday. You should make more anyways— it's almost lunch time." And he curled his arm around Sakurai's waist, just a little tighter, like he was trying to prove a point. And like he _knew_ that he could get exactly what he wanted out of him, like this. It made it hard to stay mad. 

"S- sorry."

Whether he actually managed to make any bento that Sunday (or almost any Sunday, really) was another story altogether.


	6. Hint of Enmity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AkaKaga (feat. Riko), for Challenge 28 (Chain of Fics)

“What makes you think,” she said, slowly, “I can talk to you?”

Riko was giving Akashi the death stare—the kind of look that she usually reserved when people expressed doubts about her cup size or coaching abilities. Kagami, on the other hand, was quiet, trying his best to look like he wasn't listening as he watched the rest of the team practice. He knew on some level just how bad it would be to bring Akashi with him to practice, but Akashi had insisted on coming, saying something about how he wanted to see how a less funded club managed their practice time. Even when Kagami had told Akashi that he was on the bench this week due to overworking his legs (again).

But Kagami should have taken into account the fact that there wasn't a universe in which Aida Riko would _like_ this. That Akashi choosing to stand directly behind her while she conducted practice was _probably_ not the greatest course of action that he could have taken. But then again, it was hard to really contradict Akashi, and it was better to just let him figure out for himself why this was such an awful idea.

"If you aren't the one practicing, Aida-san," Akashi said evenly, without the slightest quiver in his expression (something that no one on Seirin had ever managed when faced with her, really), "then you can talk to me. It was just a simple question."

Kagami could feel Riko's eyes on him— he could _feel_ how pissed off she was at him, for bringing Akashi along. For bringing the enemy along. But he just forced himself to watch Kiyoshi make his shot instead, praying that he seemed suitably oblivious. Riko just scoffed.

"You, Akashi Seijuurou, despite whatever relationship you have with our _ace_ , are still an enemy. You won't learn anything about Seirin's team play from me." She wasn't even looking at Akashi anymore, opting to absorb herself in her charts instead. Most people would have taken the hint— this conversation was over.

It was too bad Akashi didn't know to take a hint.


	7. Insect Repellent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AoKaga (for Challenge 29: Summer)

"Why not?"

The grin Aomine was giving Kagami was almost childlike (something that Kagami didn't see often, because he didn't have the advantage of knowing Aomine in middle school), but the effect wasn't really that endearing. Not when he had a giant cicada pinched between his thumb and forefinger, waggling it at him. That was just kind of _gross_. Even Aomine had to realize that.

"Because we aren't _little kids_ , dumbass. Who even goes hunting for cicadas anymore? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Like what? Beat your ass again?"

Kagami almost opened his mouth, to say something about how it was way too fucking hot to play basketball outside right now and they couldn't use their school courts because it was a holiday. But then Aomine would just give him crap for being weak or something and then suggest that they break into the Seirin gyms.

After all, it wasn't like Aomine would be the one to take that fall.

So Kagami just settles for the classic retort, even if it didn't exactly ring true, considering his record.

"No way you'd beat me."


	8. Red Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Umineko parody. Phenomenally stupid. Warning for very loosely implied cannibalism and gore, although not particularly graphic. I will leave it up to you if Akashi’s wearing the dress or not. Written for Challenge 41 (Character Battle - Midorima Shintarou). AkaMido.
> 
> "When I speak the truth, I will use red" - Beatrice the Golden, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

”Shintarou, the first thing you must understand is that the truth I speak is absolute.”

They were sitting at a small parlor table, and there were plates of sandwiches and the like set out. Midorima had pointedly chosen not to partake. There was too much risk involved— especially since he was pretty sure that some of the ingredients in those cakes were less than savory.

"I refuse to accept this, Akashi. I refuse to accept any of the ridiculous concepts that you’ve put forward. Witchcraft does not exist and you are nothing more than a human man.”

Akashi smiles a little, then— but there’s nothing pleasant about it. It’s nearly deranged, actually, and his eyes are wide—

"I will make you see the truth of this situation, Shintarou. There isn’t any point in trying to deny my existence as the Endless Witch, Akashi Seijuurou. In the end, I will always win the game that we’re playing right now.”

He actually looks at Midorima, then, and he could swear he could feel a chill go down his spine.

"Then say it in red, Akashi. Say that you are not a human man, and maybe the next game can begin."

Something in Akashi’s expression softens, ever so vaguely.

"That would make things far too easy, don’t you think?"


	9. Every time I see you again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yiddish Policemen’s Union pastiche. I will leave it up to you, the readers, to figure out what characters Himuro and Kagami represent, if you’ve read the novel. Written for Challenge 41: Character Battle (Kagami Taiga). KagaHimu.
> 
> “It never takes longer than a few minutes, when they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That’s what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts.” - Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

"Get dressed, Taiga."

American. Kagami Taiga knew he had to be dreaming, that this had to be some sort of fever dream from all the cheap alcohol he’d been consuming, that there was no way that someone would be speaking American in his tiny room at the Zamenhof hotel. No one else should even have the key.

He cracked open an eye— to see who it could be, to see who had managed to get into his room without being beat back by Tenenboym, the night manager.

It takes another full moment, for it to register that the person standing in his room wasn’t a member of the Miracles, that strange faction that seemed heavily invested in keeping the murder of one Kuroko Tetsuya as quiet as they possibly could. So if it wasn’t a matter of throwing around political weight, then who—

”Tatsuya?”

Himuro Tatsuya was a different kind of threat from the Miracles. Sure, he didn’t have the same vested interest in killing Taiga (or what Taiga was starting to assume was a vested interest in killing him), but there was something else. The fact that Tatsuya had believed so much in Taiga’s success that he had left him, after years of marriage and so many different kinds of failure.

Right now, though, he just closes his eyes, and smiles vaguely, like he’s the only one who understands the joke.

"Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Taiga?" He puts a hand on his hips, with that little smile on his face even if his time in other police departments had put a bit of a strain on his features. He was still beautiful, though— beautiful to Taiga, anyways.

"Only every time I see you again, Tatsuya."


	10. Blasted through a disconnected light switch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loosely inspired by California English, by Vampire Weekend. Future fic. KagaHimu. Written for Challenge 41 - Character Battle (Kagami Taiga)

Kagami pulled the spoon he had been tasting from out of his mouth, and turned back to Tatsuya.

"Mm, you should try this too, before I cook it more."

Tatsuya smiled. “You should really feed me, Taiga. It’s the least you can do, right? Since I’ve been willing to give you so much hospitality.”

That was enough to make Kagami sputter a little. He had to remember— he wasn’t really on his own turf here. This was Tatsuya’s apartment, Tatsuya’s kitchen, Tatsuya’s spoon. He was only really staying here until he could find his own place, because his parents had told him that they wouldn’t keep holding his hand if he came to the States for university.

He looks down at the spoon, and back up at Tatsuya, who was giving him a serene, somewhat knowing smile.

"… Fine. Open up. You’re not always gonna get this, though, you know.”

Tatsuya laughed a little as he complies, and let the taste of Kagami’s cooking sit on his tongue.

"It’s good. But I bet it’s better because you fed it to me."

Those words, coupled with the smile and the laugh and the fact that Tatsuya would be willing to help him dodge his angry landlord for the rest of his undergraduate career, made it so that Kagami would never refuse those requests, no matter how many times Tatsuya asked


	11. Unexpected Roles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fire Emblem AU, where Kagami’s a pegasus knight and Kise’s a dancer. Written for Challenge 59 - OTP Battle. KagaKise.

”A male dancer?”

Kagami stared in disbelief at the newest recruit to their army. He was pretty, sure, Kagami could admit to that. But only women were dancers, at least as far as he knew.

It didn’t seem like this guy was all that surprised, though. He just crossed his arms over his half-bare chest and rolled his eyes, like he was used to comments like this.

"Yeah, well, I heard in the camp before you showed up that you’re so scared of dragons that you decided to become a pegasus knight instead. What was the last time there was a male pegasus rider?" He paused, looking a little thoughtful.

"Oh, right, I don’t think that’s ever happened either."

"Oi—" Kagami wasn’t quite sure what to say. He didn’t think that that many people knew about his secret. Everyone knew he was a pegasus knight, obviously (it was a little hard to hide, especially when you were always in the stable because your mount was so damned high maintainance), but he’d only really told his commander why.

It was almost like this new guy read his mind.

"Ah, don’t worry, it was the commander that told me. Kurokocchi, right? He was pretty impressive when he recruited me, so I just had to come on. And you have to know—" He leaned in closer, getting uncomfortably into his space— "that dancers can still wield swords too, right?"

Kagami swallowed, but he still managed to force a smirk. “Whatever you say, pretty boy.”

The other man grinned. “The name’s Kise.”

Kagami gave him another look, still not entirely sure what to do with this new member of their forces, who had seemed to already gotten as much information on him as he could. And he was even calling Kurok by a nickname already— just who was this guy.

"I’m Kagami."

Kise just smiled, and held out his hand, to tug Kagami a little closer. “Try telling me something I don’t already know, huh? Obviously I got your name already, if I managed to figure out that you were scared of dragons. I know your class and all that, so maybe you should try showing me something about yourself, right?”

Kagami just scowled, completely stumped— although at least Kise’s statement was enough to distract him from the fact that they were way too close for Kagami to be comfortable normally.

"Like what?"

Kise pulled back a little, and flashed Kagami a brilliant grin.

"I wanna challenge you. Kurokocchi said you were one of the aces of his army— but I’m pretty sure he only meant in the air. Sadly I never got trained to ride a pegasus…"

He trailed off, and he almost did look sad for a second, before he snapped back, and gave Kagami a wink.

"But you’re good on foot too, right? I can’t imagine what the company would say if you got beaten by a dancer, after all.”


	12. A pretty thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This has death in it, although not graphic. Kagami-centric. Written for Challenge 62 - Girls.

She died when you were eight years old.

It was before you came to America, before you discovered basketball. Before Tatsuya, before Alex, before Seirin, before Kuroko. It might have been part of the reason why your dad decided to take you to America in the first place, although he never tried to explain it too much.

Now, though, you aren’t eight years old. You’re sixteen, you just won your first national basketball tournament, and you still remember your mom— and not just the day she died.

You remember a meal she cooked for you, while your dad had been away on business. It had been something a little complicated, but not so complicated that a six year old couldn’t help, so she’d asked you to help you roll some kind of meat in panko.

They hadn’t been perfect, but she’d still smiled and told you they looked perfect.

You remember how she looked when she waited for you by the park— you can even remember one of the dresses she wore, and how she smelled, and how she’d seemed so content to watch a small boy play.

You wanted her to play too, but you didn’t want to ruin that pretty dress.

You also remember how she looked when she’d gone to the hospital the first time. You remember people saying that it would be years, that she might recover, that she’d see you through your teenaged years and beyond. But it was all over in months, instead.

You aren’t eight years old anymore. Your mother’s been gone for a long time. But when you have that first National Title, with Seirin, you’re pretty sure you can feel her smiling.


	13. Sweet Fishing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami was just a normal fisherman, until he fished up someone a little unusual. “Mermaid” (merman?) AU. Written for Challenge 68 - Alternate Universe. KagaKise.

Kagami Taiga was just an ordinary fisherman.

It had been his dad’s business first, before he disappeared one day because he claimed he had business to do abroad. Kagami knew that business couldn’t be fish— there was no better place to fish than their small town, after all. That’s what his father had always said, until the day he’d left.

He wasn’t terribly bitter about it, though. He liked the work, even though sometimes it got boring, or lonely. All of the women in town doted on him— they always said it was wrong for a young man like him to not have the care of his mother.

He was fine with how life was, most of the time. It was simple, and satisfying, and he didn’t see a reason it had to change anytime soon.

All of that changed, though, when he had gone out on a day that he thought was going to be completely normal.

* * *

The young man just smiled at him, even though he had gashes all over his body where Kagami had gotten his fishing hooks into his flesh. Maybe calling him a “young man” wasn’t exactly accurate— given that he had a fishtail.

Saying he had gashes on his body wasn’t very accurate anymore either, since they were fast healing.

"You fished me out of the water, so now you have to give me a kiss, you know."

Kagami just blinked— half sure that this had to be an illusion.

"I do?"

"Don’t you know the stories about fishermen and mermaids?"

That made Kagami snort derisively. “I know they never end well. And you aren’t a mermaid.”

"Exactly." Kise Ryouta reached up then, to pull Kagami down so that he was bracketed over him on the floor of the boat. "So give me a kiss."


	14. It’s good for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami, Momoi, Riko. Written for twisted_sheets' request for Challenge 86 (Special Request Round): “Kagami and Momoi and Riko. Cooking lessons.”

"No, no, no."

Kagami should've known that this was a bad idea. It had been hard enough just to try and teach Coach how to make curry that one time, and now he was expected to teach her _and_ Momoi. 

It made it even harder to keep track of all the weird crap they tried to throw into the day's lesson— which he'd thought would just be western style pasta and homemade sauce. It turned out that when two more sports-minded women, even boiling pasta could turn into a strange contest of who could incorporate more supplements into the portion they were cooking. 

When it started looking more like a brain than threads of pasta, though, Kagami knew he had to step in. Even if they both looked like they might cry if he said the wrong thing. 

"Momoi—san. Coach. Did you put protein powder in the water?" 

There was a long pause, but neither of them looked particularly ashamed of what they had done. Coach was the first to speak, though— and she looked at Kagami without a trace of apology. 

"Of course I did, Kagami-kun. Now eat it."


	15. Better that way (KuroKaga)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for Challenge #87, Humor and Angst. KuroKaga.

_March 23, 20xx_

_Today, I graduated from high school._

_I will never see Kagami again._

Kuroko put his pen down. Maybe that was a little dramatic to say— especially for him. He can hear Kagami’s voice in his head— You’ll see me again, idiot. He can even see Kagami’s smile as he says it. He can feel Kagami’s big hand gripping his hair as he tried to drive that said point him.

That doesn’t make imaginary Kagami’s words true, though. He knows he won’t see him again.

On the surface, it was easy to think of Kuroko’s viewpoint as too cynical. This was just high school graduation, not a funeral. And any gap in time or space could be closed with enough effort. At least, that’s what Kuroko imagined people would try and tell him.

The difference, though, is that no one trying to reassure Kuroko that he wouldn’t be separated from Kagami forever had seen it. None of them had seen Kagami’s face when he got that letter—

_January 16, 20xx_

_Dear Mr. Kagami,_

_Congratulations on your acceptance into the University of California Los Angeles Class of 20xx._

He never bothered to read the rest, because Kagami’s face had lit up and Kuroko had known exactly why. He was going to be with his brother again, and that was enough to make Kuroko feel more than a little bit bitter. Kagami had smiled at Kuroko many times. Sometimes it was genuine. Other times, though, it was a form of reassurance that was so blatant that Kuroko wondered if he actually thought he was fooling anyone.

When he got that letter, there was nothing forced about his smile. It was pure, and genuine, and happy— something that Kuroko rarely felt like he got all for himself.

Kagami had seen Kuroko’s face, then, though, and his smile had transformed into concern.

"What’s wrong?" Kuroko remembers Kagami asking, as he reached to touch Kuroko’s shoulder. "Sorry I didn’t tell you I was applying there sooner. I didn’t really wanna tell anyone."

Kuroko felt his throat tighten, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything to him. He couldn’t bring himself to ask anything like Why wouldn’t you tell me something like this, you’re supposed to be my light, we were supposed to never be separated.

A shadow wouldn’t last under the hot California sun, after all.

There had been a graduation party— Coach had come back from university just to host it. Kuroko hadn’t gone, because he knew that even if it was called a graduation party it would become a send-off for Kagami no matter what. Even if no one on the team had known— and that much Kuroko had believed Kagami. There was no way that if Kuroko didn’t know, that anyone on Seirin did.

There was just that one person that Kagami apparently wanted to trust more than anyone else.

He looked back to where he had started writing in his notebook. He starts another sentence.

_It’s better that way._


End file.
